The Double Man By William S. Cohen and Gary Hart. New York: William Morrow, 1985. 348 pages. Out of print.-- Republican William Cohen (of secretary of defense fame) and Democrat Gary Hart (of Monkey Business infamy) collaborated across the aisle on this novel of political intrigue, but set a poor precedent for artistic bipartisanship. The novel's moderate New England senator is a sympathetic but unfathomably dull hero -- the real fun lies in guessing who wrote what. Cohen, author of two uncelebrated volumes of poetry, was surely the creative force behind the "neuron exchanger" -- a secret weapon designed "to alter the brain patterns of [our] enemies so as to make them totally benign and nonthreatening." And it's almost too easy to attribute the following to poor Hart: "Her lips parted as they sought his.... At that moment, if the flames had leaped out to consume them, they might not have noticed. Or cared." Mother Jones.com review
WASHINGTON (October 25, 2000 12:49 p.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) - The Pentagon's top intelligence expert on terrorist threats in the Persian Gulf region resigned in protest the day after the USS Cole was attacked in Yemen, members of the Senate Armed Services Committee said Wednesday.
Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., said the official quit because of what he believed was an unjustified lack of attention by his Pentagon superiors to terrorist threat warnings he had provided before the Oct. 12 attack on the warship.